Giovanna Cristina Varese

Università degli Studi di Torino | UNITO · Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi

This review gathers data derived from many research efforts on marine fungi associated with plant-origin substrates in the Mediterranean Sea. Overall, the review draws up a list of 378 taxa associated with seagrasses, seaweeds and wood. For each of the three substrates, on average, 92.7% of the taxa belonged to the phylum Ascomycota. Basidiomycota...

Six strains of black meristematic fungi were isolated from Antarctic soils, gasoline car tanks and from the marine alga Flabellia petiolata . These fungi were characterized by morphological, physiological and phylogenetic analyses. According to the maximum-likelihood analysis reconstructed with ITS and LSU sequences, these strains belonged to the g...

Aquaculture has been one of the fastest‐growing food production systems sectors for over three decades. With its growth, the demand for alternative, cheaper and high‐quality feed ingredients is also increasing. Innovation investments on providing new functional feed alternatives have yielded several viable alternative raw materials. Considering all...

Matteo, Zagni Luca, and Baima Gabriele. "15th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business Sustainable Business Concepts and Practices." EUROMED ACADEMY OF BUSINESS CONFERENCE BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS. EuroMed Press, 2022, pag. 1114-1116

Fungi are an essential component of marine ecosystems, although little is known about their global distribution and underwater diversity, especially in sediments. Microplastics (MPs) are widespread contaminants worldwide and threaten the organisms present in the oceans. In this study, we investigated the fungal abundance and diversity in sediments,...

The metacommunity framework has been rarely adopted to investigate the underlying ecological mechanisms shaping microbial communities. With the aid of advanced molecular techniques, we investigated sediment communities of Fungi, Bacteria and Archaea in four Italian show caves aiming to disentangle the effects induced by tourists on species richness...

Cancer cell migration is a hallmark of the aggressiveness and progression of malignancies such as high-risk neuroblastoma. Given the lack of effective therapeutic solutions to counteract cancer progression, basic research aims to identify novel bioactive molecules with inhibitory potential on cancer cell migration. In this context, this work invest...

The ability of sixteen wood- and soil-inhabiting basidiomycete strains and four ascomycete strains to degrade the most hazardous, widespread, and persistent pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, oxyethylated nonylphenol, alkylphenol, anthraquinone-type synthetic dyes, and oil) was found. The disappearance of the pollutants, their main metab...

The order Lulworthiales, with its sole family Lulworthiaceae, consists of strictly marine genera found on a wide range of substrates such as seagrasses, seaweeds, and seafoam. Twenty-one unidentified Lulworthiales were isolated in previous surveys aimed at broadening our understanding of the biodiversity hosted in the Mediterranean Sea. Here, these...

Over the past decades, interest for the underground karst environments has grown remarkably, not only from the scientific viewpoint, but also from an economic perspective. The so-called “show caves” are caves open to the public for touristic purposes, managed by a governmental or commercial organization. The numbers of visitors (up to 500,000/year/...

Biomass is defined as organic matter from living organisms represented in all kingdoms. It is recognized to be an excellent source of proteins, polysaccharides and lipids and, as such, embodies a tailored feedstock for new products and processes to apply in green industries. The industrial processes focused on the valorization of terrestrial biomas...

Physicochemical pretreatments used to improve the bioconversion of recalcitrant lignocellulosic biomass generate toxic by-products, such as furan and phenols. In this study, 40 fungal strains were analyzed for their capability to grow with different concentrations of furfural, vanillin, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and syringaldehyde. Byssochlamys nivea...

The genus Corollospora, typified by the arenicolous fungus Corollospora maritima, consists of twenty-five cosmopolitan species that live and reproduce exclusively in marine environments. Species of this genus are known to produce bioactive compounds and can be potentially exploited as bioremediators of oil spill contaminated beaches; hence their bi...

Considering its worldwide abundance, cellulose can be a suitable candidate to replace the fossil oil‐based materials, even if its potential is still untapped, due to some scientific and technical gaps. This work offers new possibilities demonstrating for the first time the ability of a cerato‐platanin, a small fungal protein, to valorize lignocellu...

The increasing and rapid development in technologies, infrastructures, computational power, data availability and information flow has enabled rapid scientific advances. These entail transdisciplinary collaborations that maximize sharing of data and knowledge and, consequently, results, and possible technology transfer. However, in emerging scienti...

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better healt...

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better healt...

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better healt...

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better healt...

Short chain chitooligosaccharides (COs) are chitin derivative molecules involved in plant-fungus signaling during arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) interactions. In host plants, COs activate a symbiotic signalling pathway that regulates AM-related gene expression. Furthermore, exogenous CO application was shown to promote AM establishment, with a major i...

Polyethylene (PE) is the most abundant non-degradable plastic waste, posing a constant and serious threat to the whole ecosystem. In the present study, the fungal community of plastic wastes contaminating a landfill soil has been studied. After 6 months of enrichment, 95 fungi were isolated, mostly belonging to the Ascomycota phylum. They were scre...

The enhancement of the yields of the anaerobic digestion process was the primary target of the present study, thanks to the development of an innovative fungal pretreatment. The fungal community of agrozootechnical biogas plant feedstocks and by-products (i.e., maize silage and stover, zootechnical slurry and manure, wheat and rice straw, and solid...

The polyphyletic group of black fungi within the Ascomycota (Arthoniomycetes, Dothideomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes) is ubiquitous in natural and anthropogenic habitats. Partly because of their dark, melanin-based pigmentation, black fungi are resistant to stresses including UV-and ionizing-radiation, heat and desiccation, toxic metals, and organic p...

La biodiversità vegetale, animale e microbica è da tempo oggetto di crescente attenzione a livello globale e, negli ultimi decenni, i governi e le organizzazioni internazionali e regionali si sono dotati di leggi e regolamenti atti a promuoverne la conservazione e la valorizzazione. Tra questi, la Legge 194/2015 “Disposizioni per la tutela e la val...

Fungi can run feedstock pretreatment to improve the hydrolysis and utilization of recalcitrant lignocellulose-rich biomass during anaerobic digestion (AD). In this study, three fungal strains (Coprinopsis cinerea MUT 6385, Cyclocybe aegerita MUT 5639, Cephalotrichum stemonitis MUT 6326) were inoculated in the non-sterile solid fraction of digestate...

Mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread and recalcitrant pollutants that threaten both environmental and human health. By exploiting the powerful enzymatic machinery of fungi, mycoremediation in contaminated sites aims at removing a wide range of pollutants in a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly manner. Next-gener...

Fungi are widely distributed in the Oceans, interact with other organisms and play roles that range from pathogenic to mutualistic. The present work focuses on the characterization of the cultivable mycobiota associated with the seagrass Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile collected off the Elba Island (Italy). We identified 102 taxa (mainly Ascomycota)...

Marine organisms produce a vast diversity of metabolites with biological activities useful for humans, e.g. cytotoxic, antioxidant, anti-microbial, insecticidal, herbicidal, anticancer, pro-osteogenic and pro-regenerative, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-coagulant, cholesterol-lowering, nutritional, photoprotective, horticultural or other benefi...

Two fungal strains, Aspergillus terreus MUT 271 and Trichoderma harzianum MUT 290, isolated from a Mediterranean marine site chronically pervaded by oil spills, can use crude oil as sole carbon source. Herein, these strains were investigated as producers of biosurfactants, apt to solubilize organic molecules as a preliminary step to metabolize them...

Aims: Identification of the mycobiota associated to the marine echinoderm Holothuria poli and investigation of cytotoxic and pro-osteogenic potential of isolated strains. Methods and results: Fungal strains were isolated from the animals body-wall, intestine, and faeces. The species identification was based on DNA barcoding and morphophysiologic...

Nineteen fungal strains associated with the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, with the green alga Flabellia petiolata, and the brown alga Padina pavonica were collected in the Mediterranean Sea. These strains were previously identified at the family level and hypothesised to be undescribed species. Strains were examined by deep multi-loci phylogenetic a...

Marine fungi are part of the huge and understudied biodiversity hosted in the sea. To broaden the knowledge on fungi inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea and their role in sponge holobiont, three sponges namely Aplysina cavernicola, Crambe crambe and Phorbas tenacior were collected in Villefranche sur Mer, (France) at about 25 m depth. The fungal commu...

Microorganisms represent most of the biodiversity of living organisms in every ecological habitat. They have profound effects on the functioning of any ecosystem, and therefore on the health of our planet and of human beings. Moreover, microorganisms are the main protagonists in food, medical and biotech industries, and have several environmental a...

The need for new environmentally friendly antifouling and the observation that many marine organisms have developed strategies to keep their surface free of epibionts has stimulated the search for marine natural compounds with antifouling activities. Sponges and in particular fungi associated with them represent one of the most appropriate sources...

The Guideline has the objective of presenting to the local authorities the collected and elaborated recommendations and results obtained through the LIFE BIOREST project (www.lifebiorest.com). The LIFE BIOREST project was conceived to demonstrate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of an innovative and sustainable solution for the bioremediation...

In this study, a multidisciplinary approach investigated the enzymatic degradation of micropollutants in real, not modified, municipal wastewaters of a plant located in Italy. Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction combined to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometric detection (SBSE-GC-MS) was applied to profile targeted pollutants in wastewaters collected afte...

In recent years, microbial surfactants has aroused a great interest as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional synthetic molecules. Several bacteria and yeasts are known to produce fatty acids and phospholipid surfactants as a response to their growth in the presence of organic pollutants as, for example, alkanes. Recently filamentous fungi have...

Holothuria polii is a marine animal with an important ecological and economic impact. In the present study we analysed the presence of mycoviruses associated to fungi that were isolated from different H. polii tissues. Among the 48 fungal isolates analysed we identified 10 viruses in 8 strains belonging to 7 fungal species. Five out of nine viruses...

Elbamycella rosea sp. nov., introduced in the new genus Elbamycella, was collected in the Mediterranean Sea in association with the seagrass Posidonia oceanica and with the brown alga Padina pavonica. The affiliation of the new taxon to the family Juncigenaceae is supported by both morphology and phylogenetic inference based on a combined nrSSU and...

Tannins are polyphenolic compounds produced by plants and they are used in industrial vegetable tanning of leather. Tannins represent one of the low biodegradability substances in tannery wastewaters with high recalcitrant soluble chemical oxygen demand, furthermore high concentration of tannins can inhibit biological treatment. In the present stud...

Municipal wastewaters may pose a risk to the aquatic environment and ultimately to human kind. Their treatment is a fundament step but the actual WWTPs performances cannot be taken for granted, claiming instead for continuous evaluation campaigns. Our waters are indeed threatened by the continuous input of various persistent micropollutants that ar...

Viable and metabolically active fungi in toxic mixed liquors, treating landfill leachates and municipal wastewaters, were identified by culture depending methods. A selective culture medium consisting of wastewater and agar (WA) restrained fungi that could be randomly present (94% of the 51 taxa retrieved on WA were sample-specific), overcoming the...

The emergence of antibiotic resistance and viruses with high epidemic potential made unexplored marine environments an appealing target source for new metabolites. Marine fungi represent one of the most suitable sources for the discovery of new compounds. Thus, the aim of this work was (i) to isolate and identify fungi associated with the Atlantic...

Two ascomycete strains were isolated from creosote-contaminated railway sleeper wood. By using a polyphasic approach combining morpho-physiological observations of colonies with molecular tools, the strains were identified as Fusarium oxysporum Schltdl. (IBPPM 543, MUT 4558; GenBank accession no. MG593980) and Lecanicillium aphanocladii Zare & W. G...

Tannins are secondary metabolites that are widely distributed in the plant kingdom. They act as growth inhibitors for many microorganisms: they are released upon microbial attack, helping to fight infection in plant tissues. Extraction of tannins from plants is an active industrial sector with several applications, including oenology, animal feedin...

Autochthonous bioaugmentation, by exploiting the indigenous microorganisms of the contaminated environment to be treated, can represent a successful bioremediation strategy. In this perspective, we have assessed by molecular methods the evolution of bacterial and fungal communities during the selective enrichment on different pollutants of a soil s...

Autochthonous bioaugmentation, by exploiting the indigenous microorganisms of the contaminated environment to be treated, can represent a successful bioremediation strategy. In this perspective, we have assessed by molecular methods the evolution of bacterial and fungal communities during the selective enrichment on different pollutants of a soil s...

To date, no demonstration of a direct correlation between the presence of mycoviruses and the quantitative or qualitative modulation of mycotoxins has been shown. In our study, we transfected a virus‐free ochratoxin A (OTA)‐producing isolate of Aspergillus ochraceus with purified mycoviruses from a different A. ochraceus isolate and from Penicilliu...

The microbial diversity of the Mediterranean Sea is still poorly investigated, and a greater effort is needed to reveal marine fungal biodiversity associated with algal substrates. This study is the first description of the cultivable mycobiota associated with the calcareous brown alga Padina pavonica. Twenty algal thalli were analysed with a polyp...

Basidiomycota are an ecologically and taxonomically diverse fungal phylum, colonizing all terrestrial ecosystems, with 30,000 described species. By contrast, in marine habitats Basidiomycota are under-represented compared to Ascomycota. Recently, we investigated the marine mycobiota mainly in the Mediterranean Sea, confirming the scarcity of Basidi...

The microbial diversity of the Mediterranean Sea is still poorly investigated, and a greater effort is needed to reveal marine fungal biodiversity associated with algal substrates. This study is the first description of the cultivable mycobiota associated with the calcareous brown alga Padina pavonica. Twenty algal thalli were analysed with a polyp...

The exploration of poorly studied areas of Earth can highly increase the possibility to discover novel bioactive compounds. In this study, the cultivable fraction of fungi and bacteria from Barents Sea sediments has been studied to mine new bioactive molecules with antibacterial activity against a panel of human pathogens. We isolated diverse strai...

Autochthonous fungi from contaminated wastewater are potential successful agents bioremediation thanks to their adaptation to pollutant toxicity and to competition with other microorganisms present in wastewater treatment plant. Biological treatment by means of selected fungal strains could be a potential tool to integrate the leachate depuration p...

Covering 70 % of Earth, oceans are at the same time the most common and the environment least studied by microbiologists. Considering the large gaps in our knowledge on the presence of marine fungi in the oceans, the aim of this research was to isolate and identify the culturable fungal community within three species of sponges, namely Dysidea frag...

Landfill leachates are not adequately treated in traditional wastewater treatment plants, on account of their problematic peculiarities: i.e., dark colour, high concentration of recalcitrant pollutants and COD, and high toxicity. In this work, 19 biomasses (15 autochthonous and 4 allochthonous) were exploited in biosorption treatment for the remedi...

Tannins are a complex family of polyphenolic compounds, widely distributed in the plant kingdom where they act as growth inhibitors towards many microorganisms including bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. Tannins are one of the major components of tannery wastewaters and may cause serious environmental pollution. In the present study, four different tann...

In recent years, the Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis (MUT) carried out several research programs aiming to assess the marine fungal biodiversity mainly in the Mediterranean Sea, a biodiversity hotspot in the world. Several biotic and abiotic marine substrates,, were investigated: algae, seagrasses, invertebrates, wood, water and sediments from...